Saturday, March 5, 2016

Creating my dream closet PART 2

In my previous post, I tore out part of a wall, built, painted and installed cabinet boxes, then trimmed out the bottom with base molding. This is where I left off....

A very messy bedroom during the construction process.... clothes everywhere!

^Do you see that ceiling fan? It's mauve. And it has the ugliest light kit in the world on it. But I have this rule that I stick to when renovating my home.... I do not touch anything in a room until I can rehab the whole thing and do exactly what I want. I've learned that when I try to do too many things at once, I lose focus and end up with a lot of unfinished projects. Then time goes by and I change my mind about what I wanted to do in that room, and I end up wasting money. So I am living with that mauve POS until I'm ready for the electrician to do everything in my room. He'll be adding a light over the middle of my closet built-in (above the tv), then I'll have him install 4 cans in the ceiling and switch out that mauve fan to just a standard fan without an ugly low hanging light kit on it. So I live with the ugly things until I can make them beautiful. Now moving on.....

A year later, I finally got around to going to dad's shop and building the drawer fronts. I built them similar to what is on my Pottery Barn Hudson dresser, and they turned out beautifully. Dad and I did some math, then went to the lumber yard and bought some poplar. We ripped it on his table saw, then used the shaper and assembled the drawer fronts and doors. I didn't use a tutorial for this because I have my dad, and he knows what he's doing. But here's a link to sawdust girl's shaker style doors http://sawdustgirl.com/2014/01/02/how-to-build-a-cabinet-door/

After building the doors, I filled any gaps with wood filler, and I sanded them..... a lot. Sanding is NOT fun, but it is a very important step to getting the perfect finish. My advice here is take your time and do it right! I used my rigid hand sander and went through quite a bit of sand paper.

Next, I primed and painted my doors using my trusty paint sprayer. ALWAYS PRIME. Even when using a 2-in-1 paint and primer. Again, I used KILZ and Olympic One enamel. I used one coat of primer and 2 coats of finish paint.

Doors and drawer fronts after a coat of primer

I don't have a shop of my own, so I have to paint outside. Make sure it's a nice day and isn't too windy. You don't want random pieces of the outdoors getting stuck to your beautifully painted doors. Lightly sand the doors and drawer fronts with a sanding block after the primer dries, then you're ready for finish paint!

Drawer fronts after finish paint

I also took all of my drawer boxes out and gave them a coat of finish paint on the inside.... they're so pretty now! A quick note.... the drawers on the left side of my built in unit were going to be painted white. When cutting down the piece of poplar to make the drawer front, I realized that the color of the grain on the poplar was way too gorgeous to paint. So I altered the design slightly, and ended up sanding them and doing a coat of poly on them. And they're gorgeous!

As of now, I still have to finish caulking and painting the unit on the right, and then it's time to install the doors!!!! I am SO excited! It will be so nice not having to stare at a wall of clothes anymore :) Until then, CHEERS everyone!